What is it about?
Combinations of expressed genes for signatures that can discriminate radiation-exposed from normal unexposed control blood. However, we found other confounding blood disorders can exhibit gene expression profiles that mimic responses to radiation exposure. The present study investigates these and other confounders, and then mitigates their impact on signature accuracy.
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Why is it important?
These gene signatures can quantify therapeutically-relevant as well as accidental radiation exposures. The confounding clinical findings can lead to incorrect, false positive misclassification of individuals as radiation exposed even though they haven't received a dose of radiation. It is important to recognize these cases so they are not treated for such exposures. The paper presents a solution to this problem by identifying the false positive cases and eliminating them before any actionable intervention is presented. In fact, these treatments could be harmful to patients with other underlying conditions.
Perspectives
The secretome signatures described were first suggested in a proposal to the Canadian Space Agency to detect radiation exposure in blood.
Dr Peter K Rogan
Western University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Improved radiation expression profiling in blood by sequential application of sensitive and specific gene signatures, International Journal of Radiation Biology, October 2021, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/09553002.2021.1998709.
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